Partners

Partners and Sponsors

The Women@IR – Women LEAD network is supported by the European Commission’s Jean Monnet Program.We are fortunate to be partnering with several highly esteemed institutions dedicated to the exploration and promotion of women’s leadership in Foreign Policy and International Relations.

Project Leader

Dr. Federiga Bindi is a Senior Fellow at IWPR. She is also Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at SAIS Johns Hopkins in Washington DC and a tenured Professor of Political Science at the University of Rome Tor Vergata where she is the Founding Director of the Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence and holds the Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Integration. Prior to CTR, Prof. Bindi was a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Center on the United States and Europe (CUSE) (2008-2010).

In the past, Prof. Bindi has been a researcher at the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs (NUPI) (Oslo), the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Institut d'Etudes Européens (Bruxelles), the Instituto Ciências Sócias of the University of Lisbon, the Universidade Católica de Portugal and at Sc.Po. (IEP), Paris.

Prof. Bindi has an extensive experience in government, both at the national and international levels.

In 2012, she was a Fellow in the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee under then President John Kerry, working on European politics, Transatlantic Relations and International Education issues.

In 2008-2011 she served as Senior Advisor to the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, working on Transatlantic Relations, Global Governance, Afghanistan, Aid to development. In particular, she led the Italian efforts for civil reconstruction in Afghanistan by creating and she coordinates the Italian training programs for Afghani diplomats and civil servants. In 2010, Prof. Bindi was asked by the Italian government to set up the International Relations Department of Italian National School of Public Administration (SSPA), which she did; she then served as Director of International Training.

In 2012-14 Prof. Bindi was on leave to direct the Italian Cultural Institute in Brussels, a public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy agency of the Italian government in the EU Capital.

Prof. Bindi is very engaged in promoting women leadership in International relations; she is currently working on a book project and has organized a number of training in this field.

Prof. Bindi holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the European University Institute (Florence). She previously got her MA in Comparative Politics magna cum laude from the University of Florence . She studied as an undergraduate in Florence and Paris, at the Institut d’Études Politiques, while she took part of her graduate classes at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Project Manager

Mimosa Giamanco

Mimosa is a Project Manager at Women Leaders in International Relations and Foreign Policy and a Program Coordinator for The George Washington University Nordic Ways Program. Her research interest include international relations, defense & security, and equality issues.

Previously, Mimosa has been a Visiting Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and has worked with research and policy planning at the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and with political affairs at the EU Commission. Further, Mimosa has been a coordinator at the Finnish Refugee Council in Helsinki. Mimosa holds a BA in Political Science, ans is currently completing her MA thesis on peace, conflict, and mediation.

Project Partners

Vivien A. Schmidt is Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Professor of International Relations and Political Science at Boston University, and Founding Director of BU’s Center for the Study of Europe. Her research focuses on European political economy, institutions, democracy, and political theory. Recent books include Resilient Liberalism in Europe’s Political Economy (co-edited, 2013), Debating Political Identity and Legitimacy in the European Union (co-edited, 2011), Democracy in Europe (2006)—named in 2015 by the European Parliament as one of the ‘100 Books on Europe to Remember’—and The Futures of European Capitalism (2002). Recent honors, awards, fellowships, and grants include an honorary doctorate from the Free University of Brussels (ULB), the Belgian Franqui Interuniversity Chair for foreign scholars, a research fellowship from the European Commission (DG ECFIN), and a EU Commission HORIZON 2020 Grant: (ENLIGHTEN: ‘European Legitimacy in Governing through Hard Times: The Role of European Networks¹–as a key researcher attached to the Free University of Brussels).

Dr. Saprio served as Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 2007-2015. Dean Sapiro earned her A.B. with High Honors in Government from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts (1972), where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She completed her Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Michigan in 1976 and, that same year, joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin – Madison as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and the newly established Women’s Studies Program. When she finished her service there in 2007, she was the Sophonisba P. Breckinridge Professor of Political Science and Women’s Studies. She was also a Faculty Affiliate of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Post-Secondary Education WISCAPE. She was Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin – Madison from 2002 through December, 2006 and served as Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs from November 2005 through March 2006. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of Clark University from 2001-07.

Kaija Schilde is an Assistant Professor at the Boston University Pardee School of Global Studies. Her research interests involve European and transatlantic security, the political economy of defense and security markets and industries, EU lobbies and interest groups, and the role of private nonstate actors in national and international security.

Her book manuscript, Embedded in Brussels: the Political Economy of European Security, is an investigation of the relationship between EU institutions and interest groups, with a focus on security and defense interests, including the formation of EU internal and external security policies such as Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and immigration and border security. Her other research investigates the causes and consequences of military spending cuts, defense reform and force transformation, arms exports under conditions of dependence and austerity, and the international diffusion of domestic and border security practices. She has a policy background in defense reform and transatlantic security.

Rosella Cappella Zielinski is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boston University who specializes in study the political economy of national security. Her book, How States Pay for Wars, explores how state capacity and leadership preferences shape war finance. Her other works investigates the relationship between war taxation and public opinion, defense spending under austerity, and the relationship between economic growth and military spending. In addition to academic research, Cappella Zieilnski is committed to promoting the study of political economy of national security. She is the co-director of the Boston University’s Pardee School Project for the Political Economy of Security and co-founder of the Boston Area Political Economy of Security Working Group

Stephanie Anderson, Associate Professor of Political Science, Ph.D. University of Cambridge (UK), M.Sc., The London School of Economics, and B.S.F.S. at Georgetown University. Her research focus is on the European Union (EU) as an international actor, international relations and security issues.Dr. Anderson has worked at the University of Wyoming since 2004. In 2011-12, she was a senior fellow at the KFG – Transformative Power of Europe at the Free University of Berlin researching EU security policy, identity-formation, and crisis management as well as the scholar-in-residence at the EU Centre in Singapore. In 2008, she published Crafting the EU Security Policy: In the Pursuit of European Identity (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008). Her book is based on research she did while a Senior Fulbright Research Scholar at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Her first Fulbright was as a Senior Scholar in the Graduate School of International Studies at Sogang University in Seoul, Korea. Her second book is co-authored with Rob Godby, The Economics and Politics of the Eurozone Crisis (Budrich, 2015). She has also published in several journals and edited volumes including Armed Forces and Society, The SAGE Handbook of European Foreign Affairs, and European Foreign Affairs Review.

Joyce Marie Mushaben is a Curators’ Professor of Comparative Politics and former Director of the Institute for Women's & Gender Studies (2002-2005). Fluent in German, her teaching centers on comparative public policy, the European Union, women's leadership, citizenship, immigration, mega-cities and sustainability issues. Her research covers new social movements, youth protest, German unification and identities, gender, ethnicity and welfare issues, EU migration and integration studies.

Her books/monographs include Identity without a Hinterland? Continuity and Change in National Consciousness in the German Democratic Republic, 1949-1989 (1993); From Post-War to Post-Wall Generations: Changing Attitudes towards the National Question and NATO in the Federal Republic of Germany (1998); The Changing Faces of Citizenship: Integration and Mobilization among Ethnic Minorities in Germany (2008); and, Gendering the European Union: New Responses to Old Democratic Deficits (co-edited with Gabriele Abels, 2012). Her latest book focuses on Becoming Madam Chancellor: Angela Merkel and the Berlin Republic (forthcoming 2016). Her articles have appeared in World Politics, Polity, West European Politics, German Politics, German Politics & Society, the Journal of Peace Research, Democratization, Politics & Religion, Citizenship Studies, Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies, German Law Review and Femina Politica. A past president of the German Studies Association (USA), she has also served on the Executive Boards of the International Association for the Study of German Politics and the German Studies Association, as well as on selection committees for Fulbright, the German Academic Exchange Service and the American Council of Learned Societies. She is a current Editorial Board member for German Politics & Society, German Politics and Femina Politica.

Cláudia Toriz Ramos is PhD in Political Studies (2005) by the University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. She also holds an MPhil (1992) and a first degree in History (1986) by Universidade do Porto, Portugal.

She is Assistant Professor at Fernando Pessoa University, Porto, Portugal, where she teaches European Union Politics, Political Science, Globalisation and seminars on Democracy and Citizenship.

Her research interests cover European Union politics, especially from the perspective of European integration theories and the development of political institutions - society relations, in the context of democracies. She has been doing research on political participation, political identities and democratic legitimacy. She has an interest on structures of governance and democratisation within the various frameworks of multi-level governance.

Dr. Toriz Ramos will be researching former Prime Minister of Portugal, Maria de Lourdes Pentasilgo

Professor Sara Connolly has been working at UEA since 1993 and is a Professor in Personnel Economics.

She is the UEA lead for the Eastern Academic Research Consortium (between UEA and the Universities of Essex and Kent - http://www.uea.ac.uk/research/our-research/easternarc) in the Quantitative Social Sciences. Professor Connolly is Chair of the University Library Forum (2012-present) and holds a seat on the University Information Services Strategic Committee. Until recently, she was Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching (2006 to 2012) and Associate Dean for Post Graduate Research Students (2008 to 2013) for the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Hussein Kassim joined PSI as Professor in Politics in 2007. He hs been affiliated with the Centre for Competition Policy since 2005, was Co-Investigator for the second stage ESRC grant 2009-14, and is currently a member of the management board.

Before moving to UEA, Professor Kassim taught at Birkbeck, University of London (where he was Head of School 2006-2007), the University of Nottingham, and the University of Oxford, where he held College Lectureships at Balliol College, New College and Worcester College. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at New College, Oxford (1984-87), then at Nuffield College, Oxford, studied for an MPhil in Politics (1987-1989) and from 1990 a DPhil under the supervision of the late Vincent Wright.

Professor Kassim has held visiting positions at ARENA in the University of Oslo, Columbia University, New York University, the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University, and the Centre d'Etudes Europeennes de Sciences Po, Paris, where he was Vincent Wright Chair 2015. He was appointed Visiting Professor at the College de Bruges in 2015. He is also Visiting Professor at Birkbeck, University of London.

In his research, Professor Kassim investigates EU institutions, the relationship between the EU and the member states, especially the UK and ‘Europe’, and EU policy in competition and aviation, on which topics he has published widely. He has been awarded grants by the British Academy, the Nuffield Foundation, and the ESRC, which funded 'The European Commission in Question', the main findings of which are presented in The European Commission of the Twenty-First Century, published by Oxford University Press in 2013.

Melanie Hoewer joined SPIRE in 2012. Before that she was teaching in the UCD School of Social Justice and in the Irish School of Ecumenics in TCD and she worked in a EU-Daphne funded project on Gender Violence and LGBT rights and on issues of conflict transformation, human rights and social justice for Amnesty International (Irish Section), the Latin American Solidarity Centre and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Mexico and Colombia). She is academic adviser to the Consultative Group of the Department of Foreign Affairs on the UNSCR 1325 Action Plan on women, peace and security in Ireland.

Melanie's primary areas of research are comparative ethno-national identity, conflict and settlement processes, gender equality and women's rights, Latin American politics and Northern Ireland. Her PhD thesis examined gender and identity in peace and conflict processes in Northern Ireland and Chiapas, Mexico. She has since written on intersecting boundary processes in the ethno-national conflict and settlement processes, gender identity and women's rights in Iran and Ireland, approaches to Gender Based Violence in Ireland and the status of women in Ireland.

Ben Tonra is Jean Monnet Professor ad personam of European Foreign, Security and Defence Policy and Associate Professor of International Relations at the UCD School of Politics and International Relations. In UCD he teaches, researchesand publishes in European foreign, security and defence policy, Irish foreignand security policy and International Relationstheory. From 2005 to 2010 he was Director of the Graduate School at the UCD College of Human Sciences. Outside the university Ben serves as chair of the Royal Irish Academy's Standing Committee on International Affairs and is the Project Leader for a research programme in EU security and defence policy at the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), Dublin. From 1997-1999 he was a Lecturer at the Department of International Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth and from 1993 to 1996 he was a Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin (TCD). From 1989-1991 he was a Research Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Washington DC. Professor Tonra was born in the United States, is a graduate of the University of Limerick (BA and MA) and completed his doctoral studies at TCD in 1996.

Gretchen J. Van Dyke is an Associate Professor of Political Science at The University of Scranton, where she has taught International Relations and American Government since 1994. Following her undergraduate degree in Political Science at Trinity College, Washington, D.C. and three years working in the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill, Dr. Van Dyke completed both a M.A. and a Ph.D. in Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia. At UVA, she focused on the development of national security policy during the Kennedy Administration, within the broader context of broad theoretical questions about the national interest, presidential leadership, and foreign policy decision making.

Dr. Van Dyke will be researching current United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power.

Before joining ECFR, Silvia was deputy head of the G8-G20 Sherpa office at the Italian Prime Minister’s Office. She was in charge of co-ordinating the Prime Minister and Sherpa’s G8 and G20 policy dossiers and bilaterals.

Silvia also served the United Nations as Co-ordinator of the Millennium Campaign in Italy and is a former negotiator of international and European agreements for the Italian Ministry for the Environment.

Previously, Silvia worked at the OECD (Environment Directorate), the WTO (Legal Affairs Division), and the European Commission (DG Agriculture). She was also a research fellow in the International Law Departments of the Universities of Leiden (NL) and Ferrara (Italy).

Silvia holds a Masters in International Environmental Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, London) and graduated cum laude in International Law at the University of Ferrara, where she was awarded of the title of “cultore della materia” in International Law.

Ms. Francescon will be researching former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emma Bonino

Founder and Director of the European Academy of Diplomacy and the Visegrad School of Political Studies in Warsaw, PolandSince 2004 she has transformed a “start-up” institution into an international renowned diplomatic academy, with over 5000 Alumni coming from 40 countries. Throughout her career she has inspired and led change within a number of organizations, including the Community of Democracies and the Council of Europe.In addition to her leadership and management experience Dr. Pisarska pursues a career in academia. She is an Assistant Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics, an Associate Scholar at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington D.C and a Visiting Professor at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy in Baku. She has also served as adviser to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Polish Parliament, to the Office of National Security at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland; and continues to work as regular foreign affairs broadcaster in Polish and international media.Previously, Dr. Pisarska was a Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Harvard University (2007), a Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (2010) and at the University of Oslo (2012). She is also a graduate of the University of Łódź (Poland), Warsaw School of Economics (Poland) and College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium).

Joaquín Roy (Lic. Law, University of Barcelona, 1966; Ph.D, Georgetown University, 1973), is Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Director of University of Miami European Union Center and Co-Director of the Miami-Florida European Union Center of Excellence.

Dr. Roy has published over 200 academic articles and reviews, and he is the author, editor, or co-editor of 25 books, among them The Reconstruction of Central America: the Role of the European Community (North-South Center, 1991), The Ibero-American Space/ El Espacio Iberoamericano (U.Miami/University of Barcelona, 1996), Cuba, the U.S. and the Helms-Burton Doctrine: International Reactions (University of Florida Press, 2000), Las relaciones exteriores de la Unión Europea (México: UNAM, 2001), Retos de la integración regional: Europa y América (México: UNAM, 2003), La Unión Europea y el TLCAN (México: UNAM, 2004), The European Union and Regional Integration (Miami: EU Center, 2005), La Unión Europea y la integración regional (Buenos Aires: CARI/ U. Tres de Febrero, 2005), Towards the Completion of Europe (Miami: EU Center, 2006) and A Historical Dictionary of the European Union (Scarecrow Press / Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). He has also published over 1,300 columns and essays in newspapers and magazines. Among his awards is the Encomienda of the Order of Merit bestowed by King Juan Carlos of Spain.

Dr. Roy will be researching former Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ana de Palacio

Professor Ausma Cimdina s a prominent Latvian literary scholar and critic specializing in Latvian, Baltic, and East European literary relationships as well as Feminist Studies and Theory of Literature. She received her Ph.D. from the Latvian Academy of Sciences in 1992. She is currently the Dean of Faculty of Philology at the University of Latvia

Dr. Cimdina will be researching former President of Latvia, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga

University of Tampere

Dr. Tuomas Forsberg is Professor of International Politics at the University of Tampere and adjunct professor at the University of Helsinki and University of Lapland. Previously he has worked at the University of Helsinki, at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany and at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. He gained his PhD at theUniversity of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1998.His research has dealt primarily with European security issues, focusing on ESDP, Germany, Russia and Northern Europe and he has published in journals including Co-operation and Conflict, European Security, Geopolitics, Journal of Peace Research, Political Science Quarterly, Review of International Studies and Security Dialogue.

Dr. Forsberg will be research former President of Finland, Tarja Halonen.

Eirikur Bergmann is Professor of Politics at Bifrost University in Iceland and Visiting Professor at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. He is furthermore Director of the Centre for European Studies in Iceland.

Professor Bergmann writes mainly on Nationalism, Populism, European Integration, Icelandic Politics and on Participatory Democracy. Further afield his publication list also includes couple of novels published in Icelandic.

Much of his work, which has mostly been published in English and Icelandic – a few also in German, French and Russian – is found under the links above. Below you find selection of latest publications.

Dr. Bergmann will be researching former Prime Minister of Iceland, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir

leanor E. Zeff is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and University Coordinator for Post-Graduate Opportunities at Drake University. She received the Levitt Mentor of the Year Award in 2006.

She participates on the Advisory Board of Annual Editions’ Comparative Politics, and is a member of the European Union Studies and International Studies Associations.

Dr. Zeff has publications on European Union politics, Developing Areas, and on African Politics, especially the Military in Politics. She has edited two books (with Ellen B. Pirro) on The European Union and the Member States and is now working on a 3rd Edition. She has written on "women and politics" and on Active Learning (SoTL) and the use of simulations for Teaching the EU. Her courses include Comparative Politics, Comparative Parliamentary Systems, Politics of Developing Areas, Transitions to Democracy, European Integration, Nationalism in Eastern Europe, Government and Politics in Europe, Model EU, and Immigration Policies in the US and Europe.

For several years, Dr. Zeff has accompanied students to the Midwest and SUNY Model European Union programs in Indiana, New York, Turkey and several European locations. Dr. Zeff works closely with students who want to apply to post-graduate scholarship programs, such as the Fulbright Program. Over 25 Drake students have received Fulbright Scholarships in recent years and others have been Truman and Rhodes finalists.

Dr. Zeff received her B.A. from Tufts University and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Dr. Zeff will be researching former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright